02/11/2014

BJP, Swachh Politics Is What's Needed

BJP, Swachh Politics Is What's Needed

(Brinda Karat is a Politburo member of the CPI(M) and a former Member of the Rajya Sabha.)
The voter has voted. Whatever the results, one thing is for sure - the Maharashtra election campaign and related issues
show that unless Parliament wakes up to the urgent need for electoral reforms, it's sunset time for Indian democracy.
The need for proportional representation, state funding, an end to corporate money in elections, and setting limits for
expenditures of political parties are just some of the urgently required reforms thrown up so clearly in the experience of
the Maharashtra elections.
This of course would require an initiative from the ruling party. The Congress showed no interest for nearly a decade.
Whether the BJP will is to be seen. The Maharashtra experience shows that there is little difference among the main
contenders as far as the injection of a toxin of the multiple Cs into the body politic in Maharashtra is concerned corruption, cash, criminals, caste and communalism. If all this did not become an important poll issue, it is because all
four major contenders were pretty much equally guilty in spreading the toxins around, though in differing degrees.
Let's look at the aspect of cash and criminals.
Nitin Gadkari, a central Minister and the former President of the BJP, was charged by the Election Commission for his
outrageous remarks in an election rally. In a public meeting in the Latur district on October 5, Gadkari said "In the next
10 days all of you will have in your stars the chance of Laxmi Darshan. Do not kick away the Laxmi (wealth) that will
come to you. . . There will be foreign liquor for the special leaders and country liquor for the petty leaders. Eat what you
want, drink what you want and keep what you get!"
Forget ethics. This is a clear violation of the election code of conduct. It constitutes a corrupt practice but Gadkari got
away with a reprimand. When a Central Minister speaks this language, what is the hope of cleansing Indian politics?
These were not just empty words.
The official figures of cash and liquor intercepted by the police in Maharashtra three days before the elections are of
around Rs. 16 crore in cash. The nodal officer in Pune reported that the unaccounted-for cash seized by his team was
over Rs. 24 crore. According to the Director of Enforcement of the State Excise department, the liquor seized was 15.81
lakh litres. The raids that brought out liquor were indeed according to the declared menu of Nitin Gadkari from foreign
liquor to toddy.
But this is a highly underestimated amount, just a fraction of the actual amounts spent by leaders to bribe the voter.
Regretfully, corruption has become so all pervasive that there are few to report it.
It is true that cash-for-votes is nothing new but the sheer scale of it today is enough to completely distort and subvert a
free and fair election. When the Prime Minister is setting the pace, one would expect that the old corrupt ways of the
Congress-NCP combine in winning elections would have been replaced with a swachh politics campaign. But Nitin
Gadkari would have put everyone straight on that expectation. There was not a word from Narendra Modi in all his 27
rallies against the use of money power to buy votes. It is obvious why.

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02/11/2014

BJP, Swachh Politics Is What's Needed

Maharashtra also showed the completely unequal, non-level playing field for different contestants. One of the
instruments which help national parties to "legally" cross the expenditure barrier is the concept of "star campaigners."
National parties or state-level recognized parties get to appoint a list of around 30-40 star campaigners. The
expenditure of these campaigners, like hiring of helicopters, private planes etc. are not counted in the accounts of the
candidates they are campaigning for, which gives an advantage to the candidate who has the richest leader.
Worst of all, the hundreds of crores spent in advertisements, hoardings, television ads, mobile vans projecting a national
leader is not calculated as poll expenditure at all. It is attributed to the expenditure of the political party for which there
is currently no limit. So whether the expenditure on Modi's campaign is Rs. 200 crore as alleged by Raj Thackeray or Rs.
2,000 crore, it is all the same as far as election rules are concerned.
A direct impact of this dominance of money is in the profile of candidates. We are fast getting to a stage when only the
really rich can successfully contest elections in most states where the major mainstream national parties dominate. In
this election, the richest candidate with declared wealth of Rs. 353.53 crore was from the BJP; so was the secondrichest with Rs. 200 crore. The poorest was a CPI(M) candidate with Rs. 15,000. A large majority of candidates, 236
from the four main parties are crorepatis several times over. Maharashtra is fifth on the list as far as per capita income
is concerned, but still the gap between the earnings of ordinary folk and their representatives gets wider every election.
This is more like corporatocracy than democracy.
It is also a sobering thought that the larger-than-life created image of the Prime Minister acted as a shield to push away
from public scrutiny the more murky aspect of the choice of candidates. 60 of the BJP's candidates were leaders from
other parties. Among them was a candidate accused of the murder of two north Indians when Raj Thackeray was
arrested in 2008; another is a man who spent four years in jail as an accused in the multi-crore Telgi scam; yet another a
man who was booked for spreading communal hatred.
According to Maharashtra Election Watch, the BJP has one-third of all candidates who are accused in cases of serious
crimes such as murder, rape, crimes against women, dacoits, robbery. The MNS has 42 per cent, Shiv Sena 41 per cent
and the NCP and Congress have 29 and 20 per cent respectively.
India's parliamentary democracy is already subverted in umpteen ways. Now we have a winner-takes-it-all philosophy on
display, when anything and everything goes as long as you win.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. NDTV is not responsible
for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, or validity of any information on this article. All information is provided on an
as-is basis. The information, facts or opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does
not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.
Story First Published: October 16, 2014 10:40 IST

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